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Josh Dell scored his maiden century for Worcestershire Seconds on a day dominated by the bat in the Championship encounter with Lancashire Seconds at Barnt Green.

Dell surpassed his previous best score for the Seconds of 95 against Glamorgan in a friendly fixture at Abergavenny last summer.

He resumed on 71 out of 204-6 and went onto make 104 from 145 balls with 17 fours as the Seconds totalled 255 all out – a first innings lead of 61.

Toby Lester picked up two more wickets to finish with 5-45 from 17 overs.

He had Nick Oxley (14) caught behind while Zain Ul-Hassan (7) nicked through to first slip.

Tom Sturgess (0) also fell at first slip off Jack Morley with Dell still short of three figures.

But he reached his ton and also secured a third batting point for the Seconds before his fine knock came to an end when he was caught at cover off Danny Lamb.

Lancashire’s batsmen dominated the remainder of the day and they reached 340-2 by the close – an overall lead of 279 with one day remaining.

England Test opener Haseeb Hameed and George Balderson put on 104 for the first wicket before the latter on 38 was caught by Worcestershire skipper Ollie Westbury at cover from the bowling of Zen Malik.

Hameed went to his century off 114 balls with one six and 15 fours and a second wicket partnership with Rob Jones was worth 148.

Hameed’s knock ended on 140 when he was caught at point off Sturgess but that was the home side’s final success of the day.

Jones had time to complete his century shortly before the close and his stand with Lamb is so far worth 88.
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